Fresh off the presses within the last hour, the GTW Reefer next to the Ottawa Beach Branch in Holland will be leaving its long time home tomorrow. No idea when, but it sounds like it's going early. Her destination, Port Huron...

1223 OUT! President and Founder of the Buck Creek Central, the Rolling River Route! (2012-2017) President and Founder of the Lamberton Valley Railroad, The Tin Plate Road! Proudly railfanning with Asperger's since 1996.

1223 OUT! President and Founder of the Buck Creek Central, the Rolling River Route! (2012-2017) President and Founder of the Lamberton Valley Railroad, The Tin Plate Road! Proudly railfanning with Asperger's since 1996.

The move was delayed because the permit(s) didn't get issued (yet). It sounds like the actual move could take place on Monday, if the permit gets issued.

Part of the reason was that the reefer was supposed to go down M-6, but the construction is forcing it elsewhere.

1223 OUT! President and Founder of the Buck Creek Central, the Rolling River Route! (2012-2017) President and Founder of the Lamberton Valley Railroad, The Tin Plate Road! Proudly railfanning with Asperger's since 1996.

The move was delayed because the permit(s) didn't get issued (yet). It sounds like the actual move could take place on Monday, if the permit gets issued.

Part of the reason was that the reefer was supposed to go down M-6, but the construction is forcing it elsewhere.

If it had been moved last weekend, or even this week, there wouldn't have been a problem, but apparently whoever issues the permits didn't find out what the detour route was until M-6 was shutdown. One of the things floating around today was that the permit won't be issued until the detour route can be checked for possible obstructions.

Perhaps RaildudesDad can verify whether this is correct or scuttlebutt, as well as whether or not a permit would be issued for a weekend movement of an oversized trailer (it's somewhere around 14 feet tall)? There was some doubt that the movement would even be allowed on a weekend.

Indeed, I'd be more interested as well to hear from RDD (or others) about this permitting process.

It seems like M6 would have been the best route, as it is newer and constructed to higher standards for clearance, among other things, than what would seem to be the best alternative, which is to use the 1960s-era I-196 from Hudsonville to Thornapple, which itself has construction zones in downtown Grand Rapids, which may also pose a width restriction as well as height! Yes, there have been significant improvements to what is accepted in roadway designs today, and there are plenty of things built into the Interstate system when originally constructed which would not follow guidelines today!

Construction guidelines are an interesting subject, one which I'm becoming acutely aware of this summer on my internship. For those who want to know what I'm talking about, here is the "tome" for Illinois projects, which pretty much tells you how to build a road in the State of Illinois using state funds...there is an entirely different set of guidelines for non-state projects. It has no fewer than 4336 pages in its current edition!

I will expound more when I'm off the clock but it's highly unlikely a permit for over height would be issued for the weekend. No one checks the route. It's "self serve" online. If you're too high for a segment you get rejected. And get to start over Very frustrating system. Who's the mover?

chapmaja wrote:Where exactly is this car that's being moved located at? Also what remains of the Ottawa Beach branch in terms of customers? How often is the branch served and by which train.

Located next to Sluggo's Pizzeria at 321 Douglas Ave, Holland, MI 49424.Ottawa Beach spur serves De Leeuw Lumber Co and Michigan Natural Storage(recently Ryder/TLC). A rough figure of once per week served, sometimes twice, done by Y121 based out of Holland.

Raildudes dad wrote:I will expound more when I'm off the clock but it's highly unlikely a permit for over height would be issued for the weekend. No one checks the route. It's "self serve" online. If you're too high for a segment you get rejected. And get to start over Very frustrating system. Who's the mover?

I'd appreciate that greatly. There seems to be a lot of bad information out there as to why the move didn't happen this weekend, and I think some of that is because a lot of us don't fully understand how this process works. I'd like to know a little more about what might have/probably happened, which probably wasn't translated correctly when the information was relayed amongst the small group that showed up to watch the work take place.

I was initially surprised to hear they'd been issued a permit to move it on a weekend, although that obviously turned out not to be the case.

Marc Kalis is the mover.

Alex, the west end of the eastbound lanes of M-6 we're shut down for replacement earlier this weekend. Otherwise it doesn't sound like there would have been any issues nearly as significant as this that would have delayed the move.

I stand corrected, MDOT will allow moves on the weekend. It has to be no higher than 14 feet. I know Marc. I've even moved some RR equipment with him

MDOT says they will issue a permit in 12 hours or less. My experience in getting permits is it can take only a hour or so IF everything is in order. The office is closed at 4:30 on Friday afternoon till 7:30 on Monday so one won't be issued over the weekend. I've also had the experience of working 8 hours to just get an application submitted. Very aggravating unfriendly system.

Sounds like next weekend could finally see it roll out but nothing set in stone.

1223 OUT! President and Founder of the Buck Creek Central, the Rolling River Route! (2012-2017) President and Founder of the Lamberton Valley Railroad, The Tin Plate Road! Proudly railfanning with Asperger's since 1996.